Reflections on A Wild Sheep Chase

In all honestly, I found it very difficult to get through this book. The lack of plot, and outward character relations really pushed me away at times. However, at the end of the book when the nameless girlfriend leaves, I really begin to respect the text. I saw true, honest to gosh emotion in the narrator. I was confused at the girlfriend- analyzing everything she had done the past few days to get any clues as to why she would get up and go. (Later we find out it has more to do with the Rat than anything). This moment really caught my attention- maybe for the first time in the entire book.

I saw the The lack of personal title to the characters added the effect of perplex vagueness, as impossible as that may seem. Perplex in that instead of picturing someone based on their title, we look at their actions, being much more difficult to analyze the characters throughout the novel. The only real titles we know are The Sheep Man, J, The Rat, and Sheep Professor. How vague. My overall reaction- well... the book seemed as if it had a simple plot, and then at the end it got quite complicated. I liked that, oddly enough.

I would really recommend this to a reader purely because it's such a different text then what we are used to. The characters, the plot, the culture, everything. It's an experience, rather than a read.